In 1983, a young well-coiffed David Copperfield conjured up a magic trick so bombastic and implausible in an analog world that 50 million viewers stayed home on a Friday night to watch the Statue of Liberty disappear before a live TV audience.
Why does something so clearly unreal captivate 50 million people (including me) into thinking it’s real?
Copperfield lamented that the word “trick” diminished the sophisticated planning and choreography behind the illusion. Good magic is hard work. Believing in magic is not. It requires little cognitive effort or…
